Nightwoods

My book group met the other night to discuss Charles Frazier’s latest novel, Nightwoods (he's the author of Cold Mountain).  The story line did not appeal to me that much, but as happens in a good book, I found myself being pulled into the story as it went along. The story is set in the mountains of rural North Carolina, and is about a young woman, Luce, who for reasons we learn later in the story, is living as a recluse in an old abandoned inn, away from the town and away from people.  She is happy living this solitary life, but when her sister Lily is murdered by her abusive husband Bud, Luce is given her sister’s two troubled twin children to care for. The children do not speak, and have a disturbing little habit of setting fires. We can presume that they have been traumatized by witnessing their mother’s murder and who knows what other abuse Bud has inflicted upon them.  As the man from the state tells Luce, they’ve been through “a bad patch.” Thus begins a new life for Luce, doing what she can to help the two children feel safe in the world and survive. She uses nature to comfort them, teaching them about plants and trees, and the stars in the sky. A kind and gentle man comes into Luce’s life and she slowly learns to trust him and they begin to forge a life together with the children. But then Bud resurfaces and scares the children away and up the mountain.


There is not a lot of action in the book, except for this last part when Luce is searching for the children on the mountain at the same time that Bud is hunting them down. Frazier's descriptions are powerful and you can almost smell the pine trees on the mountain, and feel the cold and the damp earth.

I like this kind of book once in a while. Not alot going on, but you feel the characters and care about them even if you don't know very much about them.  Not everyone in the group liked it, but most appreciated something about it and I think we were all glad we read it.